New Feature: You can now instantly save any node group to a custom library or convert a single node into a node group and save that to a custom library at the press of a button! Just press the downward pointing arrow next to the node label to save the node group or single node as a node group. This marks the group as an asset and silently sends it to a special Nodes library within the user’s main assets library location. Note this option will be grayed out until a custom name for the node group or node is provided in the node label box.
New Feature: A new feature has been added to Auto Maintenance to automatically adjust certain node settings. Currently this option changes the Principled BSDF node from Random Walk to Christensen-Burley for easier to manage subsurface scattering results. You can find a list of adjustments by pressing the “Manual” button within the addon menu. You can suggest and vote on settings at blenderforums.org/f/a/sensei-addons/power-node/power-node-requests.
New Feature: You can now select between Precise and Organic modes for activating true auto-displacement via the Maintenance menu in Power Node. Precise (on by default) adjusts settings best to work with a subsurf modifier set to Simple subdivision, good for brick textures, hard surface objects, architecture etc. Additional options will appear when this option is active allowing you to control default viewport and render subdivision levels for the displacement effect and other potions.
The Organic option enables Blender’s adaptive subdivision feature which works best with terrain, rocks, and other organic shapes but can produce artifacts with more rigid shapes like bricks. Another option “Bevel & Smooth” will display when this option is active (on by default) which helps better shape low-polly objects using true displacement by switching to Catmull-Clark (smooth) subdivision and adding a bevel modifier beneath it.
New Feature: A new option “Speed Up Inspection” under the Node Inspect menu (on by default) will automatically hide all objects not using the active material as well as mute displacement nodes when inspecting a node. The object and mute states are returned when double-clicking anywhere off of a node on the screen.
Improvement: True displacement now no longer requires multiple steps to activate!
Improvement: Activating True Displacement now adds a displacement node and connects any color information linked to the Base Color socket of the Principled BSDF node (if displacement node is missing or not linked). This makes experimenting with true displacement much easier for beginners and makes it possible to use without additional effort for materials not created with Power Node even if they have no displacement nodes.
Improvement: The icons of the Node Tools menu now use their hotkeys as their icons for easier referencing and to stay consistent with the Quick Inserts menu icons.
Improvement: Some items in the Power Node menu have been removed and others adjusted. These options can be found throughout the various other tabs in the node editor’s menus. The new menu makes it easier to access texture coordinates for texture nodes and group input and output menus while inside of a node group. Additionally, rather then pressing the eye icon to en/disable the node menu, you can click on the activated menu item to hide its contents.
Improvement: The Node Maintenance Auto Coordinates feature will only link at most one vector input on newly added nodes and only to the active node and will no longer reconnect previously adjusted nodes.
Improvement: The Auto Coordinates feature will no longer link to a node’s vector input if it is already linked.
Improvement: The Auto Coordinates Texture Coordinate node now only adjusts its location on the X axis after its initial creation when adding additional nodes with vector inputs behind it.
Improvement: The Auto Bump node maintenance feature is now on by default.
Improvement: The Node Maintenance Auto Displacement feature now defaults to connecting to the Height input value of the added displacement node rather than the Midlevel value.
Improvement: New mixed nodes (Join) now default to a factor of 1 and the blend type (or operation if math node is used) is set to multiply.
Improvement: Changed Scale value in Maintenance Auto Displacement menu to read “Displacement” since it’s less confusing and this value comes from the displacement node.
Improvement: Changed name of dicing rate in displacement menu to “Resolution”.
Improvement: The Auto Bump option has been removed in favor of adding the functionality of automatically adding a bump node as an option for the auto displacement feature. You can still enable or disable this option within Power Node’s preferences.
Bug Fix: Wrong linking with reuse of variant node would sometimes occur.
Bug Fix: Pressing I to insert an invert node would sometimes link to the wrong sockets.
Bug Fix: Quick insert for Hue/Saturation node wasn’t working when in Compositor Editor.